David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

TALK

WHY PAINTING? – Rex Butler

Explore the recent history, current state and the possible futures of painting in this series of talks.

REALLYPOST-CRITICAL

Rex Butler (Monash University)
Sat 26 September
2-3.30pm

The Brisbane-based newspaper The Courier-Mail recently carried a long article by journalist Susan Johnson, 'CJ Hendry shows how artists are finding fame and riches by using social media' (Read article here) (December 15, 2014), featuring the work of one CJ Hendry, an artist whose work bears an uncanny resemblance to that of another Queensland artist Michael Zavros. Painter Zavros is known for his “post-critical” attitude towards art-making, his doing away with that critical “irony” that distinguishes the work of art from that object or attitude it appears to represent. Zavros’ work simply is what it represents: cars, handsome young men, the artist narcissistically bathing in his own wealth and glamour. And yet Zavros and his dealer in the article are quoted defending his work against its imitation by Hendry. In what could the difference between the two bodies of work lie? How are we to distinguish between Zavros’ “original” and Hendry’s “copy”? And why would Zavros, given his apparently “post-critical” attitude, want to?

Rex Butler is Professor of Art History at Monash University. He is currently working on a history of UnAustralian art with ADS Donaldson and has recently completed a book on Deleuze and Guattari’s What is Philosophy?

FREE, bookings essential
Veolia Lecture Theatre

Presented in association with Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney

Image Credit: Lucy Parahkina

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

detail A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/ someone looks at something... LOGOS/HA HA

14 September 2015

There was loud appreciative laughter in the bLOGOS/HA HA Canberra Office this morning when our politics staff heard the ABC political editor Chris Uhlmann accidentally reveal the PM's plan to save his Prime Ministerial skin. Uhlmann stumbled-out that if this weekend's Canning by-election went badly, Abbott just might call "a double disillusion". His pronunciation was clear.

Realising that Uhlmann had inadvertently divulged a confidence, we called an immediate editorial meeting at which an editorial was committed to, several opinion pieces were proposed, tomorrow's banner was sketched (below) and Laughter Models were hired from an agency.

At 4pm it was Stop the Presses : Malcolm's challenging!

click image to enlarge

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/ someone looks at something...

LOGOS/HA HA

10 September 2015

Dora Maar (November 22, 1907 – July 16, 1997), born Henriette Theodora Marković, was an Argentinian-raised photographer of French and Croatian descent, with further known artistic work in poetry, and painting; she is most widely known as Pablo Picasso's muse of nearly a decade (c.1935-44), including for his widely known pieces Guernica and The Weeping Woman.- Wikipedia

The man on his knees appears to be multi-headed with one or more heads down the darkness manhole and one head resting on the lighted path above, that being either iron-masked (see: L'Homme au Masque de Fer) or actually having the form of a two-eyed matrix manhole cover. The other man is a TAR passer-by : his suited body in the photographic dimension; his probable head, crop-guillotined, likely exists elsewhere.

Around the time of this photo effacement, Dora Maar was introduced by Paul Eluard to Pablo Picasso. Over their next nine years together, Picasso rendered Maar's visage many times.

Below, three women of Theatre of the Actors of Regard perform

'for and after Dora Maar Untitled c.1935' :

photo by LM of TAR

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/ someone looks at something...

LOGOS/HA HA

06 September 2015

Not since WW2 and the 1947 partition of India has there been such a mass movement of human refugees.Often in such extremis, the overwhelming complexity is reduced to a single compelling image; often of a suffering child, as it was in the Viet Nam war, at the Oklahoma City Bombing and during the Gaza Strip invasion in 2000. This time, it's the image of a refugee child at the borders of sea and land, war and peace, life and death.

01 September 2015

Attorney General George Brandis, who personally chose Dyson Heydon to lead the Royal Commision into Trade Union activities, said recently that Commissioner Heydon "does not have a political bone in his body". Indeed, that...

“This is a man who has no politics, who is entirely free of politics, but has given a lifetime of service.”

The test for determining whether a judge should disqualify himself or herself by reason of apprehended bias is “whether a fair-minded lay observermight reasonably apprehend that the judge mightnot bring an impartial and unprejudiced mind to the resolution of the question the judge is required to decide”

Surely that is a might might through which a fair-minded lay observer might drive a galaxy fleet of hyperdrive perceptors; and yet the projection-space known as Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon has judged himself reasonably unlikely to be such a projection by others.

Here's the submission about that as made by lawyer for the ACTU, Mr Newlinds :

May I emphasise at this point what I call the double "might" test in Ebner. We would respectfully suggest that the use of the two "mights", not only is it rather ugly grammar, it does emphasise that this is actually quite a low bar that is imposed by the High Court in relation to the test, because I don't have to persuade you that the hypothetical observer would think that you harbour a political prejudice. I only have to persuade you that the hypothetical observer, firstly, might think and, secondly, what he might think is that you might harbour a political prejudice. I think that is an important point to emphasise. The test could be cast with the use of many other words but it has obviously deliberately been cast in that sense which creates a low threshold. That is our first submission. We put it forward as a basis by itself that would justify the making of the orders we seek.

Dyson Heydon would not be run out again - not by the other runner, not as a result of his own error, and not by the other side - while serving in the Prime Minister's XI. He has declared himself, "Not out".